Cardiac rehabat Methodist:making hearts

stronger

FOCUS ON WOMEN’S HEART HEALTHFebruary’s content sponsored by Methodist Hospital

BY KIM CARPENTERWORLD-HERALD CORRESPONDENT

H eart disease. Whether you’ve had quadruple bypasssurgery or have just been diagnosed with high bloodpressure, those two words can be intimidating.

In most cases, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, bestknown simply as cardiac rehab, will be part of your lifesaving— and life changing — treatment.

While it may sound daunting, cardiac rehab is exactlywhat’s needed to get the heart muscle strong. And keep it thatway.

Most people think cardiac rehab comes into play onlyfollowing a major heart procedure, such as a bypass or openheart surgery. While Methodist Hospital offers that level ofcare, it also offers two other phases of cardiac rehab. Onebenefits patients with heart disease who have not requiredsurgery. And another offers long-term opportunities for peo-ple

to maintain good health.What is known as Phase I rehab plays an important role

following surgeries, said Brian Chouquette, a cardiac rehabnurse with Methodist.

“Following open heart surgery,rehab gets people up on their feet,walking and talking. It’s what you needto do — get on your feet — and whereyou go from there to get stronger.That’s the first step to making peoplestronger and healthy.”

The average hospital stay afteropen-heart surgery is five days, andduring that time rehab nurses workwith patients to get them first sittingup and then walking three to fourtimes a day. They also focus on theimportance of a healthy diet, regularexercise and quitting smoking.

Nurses additionally talk with pa-tientsabout their plan for going home.

“We work with a lot of families,”said Chouquette.“A lot of times peopledon’t remember everything becauseof the anesthesia, so we figure outof the anesthesia, so we figure out

who the primary caretaker will be,such as a child or a spouse, and talk to them about the cardiacprogram."

Phase II cardiac rehabilitation is for people who have hadboth inpatient and outpatient procedures performed or whohave been diagnosed with cardiac disease and have not hadsurgery.

Patients begin this phase with an interview that allows car-diac nurses to evaluate the patient, assess health issues anddetermine a plan of action.

"There are lots of components to rehab, and we ask themwhat their goals are," Chouquette said. "What do they wantto accomplish in rehab? Maybe they want to focus on weight.

Cardiac rehab nurseBrian Choquette:

“Our philosophy atMethodist for rehab isthe sooner, the better.”

"Some people have never exercised a day in their life,"Chouquette said. "They can be fearful and hesitate. But weassure them that we're not going to give them more than theycan handle.

"We also emphasize why exercise is so important, that thewhole point of aerobic exercise is to burn fat and calories andto benefit the heart muscle."

Methodist is careful to ensure patients are using the propertype of exercise equipment.

"A large percentage of our patients are older, so we haveequipment geared toward being easy on the hips and knees,"Chouquette said. "For older people with joint issues, we havethem work out on machines that let them move their arms andlegs and aren't painful. You have to have equipment appropri-ate to their condition."

Evaluations occur constantly during the exercise sessions."Patients are all hooked up to monitors. We are always mon-itoring the heart for arrhythmias and irregular heartbeats,"stressed Chouquette.

Mary Jane Thompson Wyma, 84, recently received twostents at Methodist and is in Phase II cardiac rehab.

"They get you into a mindset of being constant and inten-tional with exercise," she said. "I think I'll retain that for therest of my life."

Patients also take classes that help them better learn abouttheir risk factors and how best to manage them.

Sandy Skradski, cardiac rehab exercise specialist at Methodist Hospital, monitors the heart rate of participants during a recent cardiacrehab session. Programs at Methodist for heart patients also include classes on nutrition, smoking cessation and behavioral health.

those that apply, such as changing a sedentary lifestyle andquitting smoking."

Methodist's classes address a wide range of subjects,including diabetes, smoking cessation, hypertension andnutrition. Classes are taught by experts in the field, such asby dietitians who provide instruction on basics such as how toread labels, what kind of cooking fats and oils to use and howto order healthy choices at restaurants.

One of the offerings is particularly appealing to Chouquette."One of the things we do, which I think is really neat, is be-

havioral health counseling," he said. "Counselors can addressstress and depression and provide further support. That partis really important."

“You can’t control all your risk factors such as genetics andage,” Chouquette said,“ but you can learn about how to modifythose that apply, such as changing a sedentary lifestyle andquitting smoking.”

Methodist’s classes address a wide range of subjects,including diabetes, smoking cessation, hypertension andnutrition. Classes are taught by experts in the field, such asby dietitians who provide instruction on basics such as how toread labels, what kind of cooking fats and oils to use and howto order healthy choices at restaurants.

One of the offerings is particularly appealing to Chouquette.“One of the things we do, which I think is really neat, is be-havioral

health counseling,” he said.“ Counselors can addressstress and depression and provide further support. That partis really important.” Thompson Wyma agreed.

"Cardiac rehab just makes you more conscious," she said."I've been amazed, and I think it's just an excellent program."